Colm OharaArtist Affiliate: Conductor
Colm O’Hara is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser, and composer, joining Emory after lecturing in Aural Development and Compositional Techniques at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (Dublin) since 2023. Previously, he was Brass Lecturer at Dublin City University.
He has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Irish National Opera, Cork Opera House Orchestra, and RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Internationally, he has toured the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, and China with groups including the European Radio Jazz Orchestra, Laura Jurd’s Human Spirit (UK), the world-music group Yurodny, and Crash Ensemble – Ireland’s leading contemporary music group. Upcoming performances include conducting Snowpoet with Guildhall Jazz Orchetra in London (March 2026).
His compositions have premiered in Ireland, the UK, and Germany. His ensemble, the Colm O’Hara 10tet, performed the closing concert at the New Music Dublin Festival (2022). O’Hara appears on over 30 albums, including two nominated for the RTÉ Irish Folk Music Album of the Year (2023).
From 2009–2025, he served as Musical Director, conductor, and principal instrumental teacher at Manor Kilbride Music School (Ireland), whose students have gone on to join the Irish Army No. 1 Band, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and the Ulster Orchestra. Since 2019, he has worked as an artistic consultant with Common Ground, a Dublin-based community arts organization.
O’Hara is co-founder and conductor of the award-winning East Meets West Youth Orchestra, which performed his Improvisations for Youth Orchestra at the IAYO Festival (National Concert Hall, 2014), Galway Cathedral, and the International Society of Music Education Conference (Scotland, 2016).
He studied with many esteemed professors including John Ruocco (Royal Conservatoire, The Hague) and Nils Wogram (Hochschule Luzern), and has performed with musicians including Kenny Wheeler, Michael Brecker, Gavin Bryars, and Peter Ralchev.
